In what seems counter intuitive on the surface and real head scratcher, a Quinnipiac poll released yesterday (Feb 10) shows that support for Michael Bloomberg among black voters is second highest among the Democratic candidates, only behind Joe Biden.
How can that be? Everyone, especially in the black community, is very well acquainted with Bloomberg’s support for his onerous “stop and frisk” policy, and his very public contention that serious crime is limited to “black and brown males between the ages of 16-24”. In this same poll, Bloomberg consistently lags behind Biden and Sanders with black voters in “Best Leadership” and “Best Policies”. So why do they say they’ll vote for Bloomberg, second only to Biden, if he doesn’t have the best policies or leadership abilities?
The answer is electability. Obviously, it’s dangerous to speak for an entire block of voters, but this poll indicates that for black voters, electability is a HUGE issue and they clearly see Biden and Bloomberg as best suited to defeat Trump in November. It’s such a big issue, they’re clearly willing to vote for Bloomberg despite whatever misgivings and fears they harbor due to his well-documented support for policies that unfairly and adversely impact them.
Last night on the 11th Hour with Brian Williams, Jason Johnson offered a corroborating opinion.
“...This is a horrible indictment of the Democratic field...The fact that African Americans, half of them literally, have left Joe Biden and have begun to support Mike Bloomberg is indicative of the fact that none of the rest of the Democrats have convinced them that they can beat Trump. And African American voters are primarily focused with getting Donald Trump out of office. And they will make a deal with the Devil if they have to, if that’s what it required to get Trump removed.”
Whatever Bloomberg is, and however his policies may hurt African Americans, black voters appear to have concluded four more years of Trump would be worse. This presents a potentially massive problem for any Democrat not named Biden or Bloomberg who gets the nomination, because none of those candidates has instilled confidence in the African American community they can beat Trump. And without that confidence, a lot of people may just stay home on election day. Given ongoing voter suppression efforts and election interference targeting black voters, Democrats can ill afford to have even one voter stay home.
The other candidates are going to have to figure out how to instill confidence they have what it takes to best Trump in a head-to-head match up, because it matters a lot to this large voting block. And without their enthusiastic support, putting a D in the Oval Office just got that much harder.